The tiny coffin was adorned with a baseball hat, toy car and Spider-Man blanket? reminders of a life taken far too soon.
The family and friends of Steven Richards, 7, of Severn, gathered to remember him during an emotional service Wednesday at Stallings Funeral Home in Pasadena.
He died a week ago after he was struck by a falling tree branch in the driveway of a house in the 7900 block of Telegraph Road in Severn in Anne Arundel.
“I?m sorry I couldn?t protect you better. I?m sorry I failed you,” said Jennifer Titchenell, 30, who shook with deep sobs as she leaned over and kissed her son?s cheek.
“I just can?t believe you?re gone. You get up there and raise hell like you did down here.”
Steven?s older brother John Richards, 8, ran to their mother and hugged her as she spoke.
“My brother loved to play with me,” was all John Richards could say before he too broke down.
But through the tears, mourners laughed as they spoke of Steven?s exuberance, his fondness for cars and loving nature.
“I remember Steven?s crooked smile,” said his kindergarten teacher Jane Cogswell from Richard Henry Lee Elementary School in Glen Burnie.
“And how you had to brace yourself when he came to hug you, because he?d throw his arms around you and knock you back.”
Steven?s death was the second in three months at the Severn house belonging to the Clark family with whom the Titchenells are staying temporarily.
Derrick “D.J.” Clark Jr., 2, died there Jan. 9 when he was struck by a car as he walked from the house to his grandfather across Telegraph Road, police said.
Steven is survived by his brothers Josh, 12 and John, 8, as well as his sister Jenna, 6. Steven?s family said he saved his brother John by pushing him out of the way as the branch was falling toward both of them.
He was buried at Glen Haven Cemetery in Glen Burnie.
